§ Statement of Purpose

The View from 1776 presents a framework to understand present-day issues from the viewpoint of the colonists who fought for American independence in 1776 and wrote the Constitution in 1787. Knowing and preserving those understandings, what might be called the unwritten constitution of our nation, is vital to preserving constitutional government. Without them, the bare words of the Constitution are just a Rorschach ink-blot that politicians, educators, and judges can interpret to mean anything they wish.

"We have no government armed with the power capable of contending with human passions, unbridled by morality and true religion. Our constitution is made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." John Adams, to the Officers of the First Brigade, Third Division, Massachusetts Militia, October 11, 1798.

§ American Traditions

§ People and Ideas

§ Decline of Western Civilization: a Snapshot

§ Books to Read

§ BUY MY BOOK

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

In Defense Of Free Markets

Free markets adjust prices to reflect continuously changing supply and demand. Free markets are a source of true information. Government interventions such as Obama’s various “green” subsidies, taxes, and regulations, along with the Federal Reserve’s monetary policies, deliberately obscure the truth of underlying supply and demand, aiming to control consumers’ behavior.

Small wonder that the government’s Keynesian economic interventions have left private businesses uncertain about true underlying market conditions. Small wonder that the economy remains mired in the worst recession since similarly wide and deep tinkering under the Nixon and Carter administrations.

Much modern economic theory, for example, has been used to justify government intervention in the free-market process. We might pause to reflect that this process, which operates as a price system or, seen from another angle, as a profit-and-loss system, is simultaneously a way of revealing the truth. Thus, for example, a price established on the free market communicates true information to all potential market participants about the exchange value of a good or service relative to other goods and services. If the government places an excise tax on a good, thereby diminishing the quantity demanded and raising the market price, potential buyers now react to a false signal of the good